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Greetings everyone!
And a special welcome to all the new subscribers!
I think it's about
time I featured potjie recipes again, but before I get to that let's make
some pot bread. Pot bread is usually baked outdoors over the coals. A cast
iron flat bottomed pot is used. I actually cheat as I just buy ready
dough from the supermarket. If I want to be creative I simply add whatever
I want, for instance I add some grated cheese and onion for a
cheese-and-onion pot bread, diced olives for an olive pot bread and so on.
Through experimentation I have learned that if you place the pot on 5
charcoal briquettes and place another 5 on the lid you will have a well
done bread in an hour! I wait till the charcoal is burnt to a grey colour
and then they are ready for use. Go ahead and try it, nothing like hot
fresh bread to star off a bbq! Scroll down for some recipes. A very easy
pot bread recipe is to make a dough from a 340 ml bottle or can of
beer, 500 g self raising flour and 5 ml salt. As easy as that!
Never buy another recipe
book again.
I have put together my South African Traditional Recipes in English and
Afrikaans plus another 36 recipe eBooks on one CD.
Click here to take a look and also get your free Low Fat recipe
eBook
Here are some neat links for handy converters:
http://www.stabb.com/tools/convert.html
and
http://www.stabb.com/tools/weight.html
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Freebie -
Right click here and download the eBook ~Egg Recipes ~ This
eBook is also on my
Recipe CD
In the
previous issue I tried to trace the origin of Coke. This time it's another
great US institution, the hamburger. Let's stick to the American
hamburger, this is what I could find:
There
is a diversity of opinion between the northeast and the southwest, with
still another opinion coming from the midwest. In the northeast, they say
that the burger was first grilled by Louis Lassen of New Haven,
Connecticut who ground up some scraps of beef and served it as a sandwich
to a customer who was in a hurry in 1900. In Athens, Texas, they say a man
named Fletcher Davis fried a beef patty and put it between two
slices of bread as a sandwich in the late 1880's and took it to the 1904
World's Fair in St. Louis. However, there is some evidence to support the
theory that the hamburger got its start at the World's Columbia Exposition
in 1893 in Chicago. Other midwesterners claim that Charlie Nagreen
of Seymour, Wisconsin invented it in 1885, introducing it at the Outagamie
County Fair.
Most historians seem to agree that the popularization of the Hamburger as
we know it today, was when Fletch Davis began selling the ground
beef patty sandwich at the amusement area, known as The Pike at the St.
Louis World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in 1904. Fairgoers took
their taste home with them and began experimenting with the Hamburg Steak
tucked between two slices of bread. No one knows who thought up the
hamburger bun, but by the time the White Castle people opened their
doors in 1921 most of the country knew about hamburgers. In 1929 Elzie
Crisler Segar was further popularizing hamburgers by giving his
cartoon creation, Popeye, a sidekick called J. Wellington Wimpy who
was rarely pictured without a burger in his hand. (Could this be the
origin of the Wimpy food chain? - Peter)
Anyway, in my humble opinion the best hamburgers in South Africa are made
by Steers!
And...that's the history of the American hamburger.
Does anyone know when milk shakes originated? I will try and find out!
Here is an
interesting article from
www.southafrica.info I will be using more articles from their
interesting website in future letters.
African food
Maize has long been the basis of African cuisine. Each community, whether
Xhosa or Zulu, Sotho, Tswana or Swazi, holds to slight differences in
making it and preferences in eating it, but certain dishes have the
approval of nearly all. Here are some of them: fresh, "green" mealies,
roasted and eaten on the cob, sold by hawkers almost everywhere, usually
women, who set up their braziers on the pavement; dried and broken maize
kernels, or samp: samp and beans, or umngqusho, is a classic African dish;
dried maize kernels ground fine into maize-meal or mielie-meal, used for
everything from sour-milk porridge to dumplings, crumbly phutu to
fine-grained mieliepap. It is mixed with sorghum and yeast for umqombothi,
a popular African beer, or with flour and water for mageu, a refreshing,
slightly fermented drink.
Early African tribes planted millet and sorghum - and indeed, they still
do. Millet makes quite a nice traditional beer, as does sorghum (called
amabele, amazimba, luvhele), which can also be used for an excellent
porridge.
Africans from early times also raised cattle, but very few of the beasts
ended up on the open wood fires of the braai.
There was game to hunt and insects to gather - termites, locusts, and
especially mopane worms, which are caterpillars that live on mopane trees.
Dried, then fried, grilled, or cooked up in a stew, they were considered a
delicacy in the northern part of South Africa, among the Venda, Tsonga and
Pedi people, as well as in Botswana and Zimbabwe - and still are, served
up as hors d'oeuvres at restaurants and pubs in the city. In the north,
the caterpillars and other foods are cooked in peanut sauce; further
south, it's onions, tomatoes and a touch of chilli.
One can find dishes made with amadumbe - rather like sweet potatoes -
where African food is served. But the vegetables one finds most often in
African homes are morogo (any green leaves, including bean and beetroot
leaves), pumpkin, often sweetened or seasoned with cinnamon (a taste
shared with Afrikaner cooks), and beans of all sorts.
The meat can be goat or chicken and quite often is tripe, a delicacy here
as it is in France, and possibly a legacy of the Huguenots or, as likely,
the kind of meat available to people whose finances didn't stretch to
fillet steak.
From:
http://www.southafrica.info
A Cry for Help
from Zimbabwe - Please
click here and do your best to help!
Ever tried
Rooibos tea?
As promised, a Rooibos6 recipe
Rooibos Tea
Pudding
60 ml marmalade or
apricot jam
60 ml (50g) sugar
125 ml oil
20 ml (10g) bicarbonate of soda
500 ml (240g) cake flour
pinch of salt
grated rind of 1 lemon
Rooibos tea
sauce
750 ml hot Rooibos
tea
300 ml (240g) sugar
juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon
10 ml (10g) butter
Mix the jam, sugar
and oil. Add the bicaronate of soda.
Sift the cake flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Add to the jam
mixture and the lemon rind.
Mix well. Form the dough into balls and arrange in a baking dish.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and pour over balls.
Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180º until cooked. Serve with custard or
ice-cream.
When
an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee,
Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value. Later,
when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this
poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made
and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to
Ireland.
The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the
Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association
for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her
simple, but eloquent poem. And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing
left to give to the world, is now the author of this "anonymous" poem
winging across the Internet:
Crabby Old Woman
What do you see, nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking
When you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman,
Not very wise,
Uncertain of habit,
With faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food
And makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice,
"I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice
The things that you do,
And forever is losing
A stocking or shoe?
Who, resisting or not,
Lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding,
The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse,
You're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am
As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding,
As I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten
With a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters,
Who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen
With wings on her feet
Dreaming that soon now
A lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty,
My heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows
That I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now,
I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide
And a secure happy home
A woman of thirty,
My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other
With ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons
Have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me
To see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more,
Babies play round my knee,
Again we know children,
My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me,
My husband is dead,
I look at the future,
I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing
Young of their own,
And I think of the years
And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman
And nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age
Look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles,
Grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone
Where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass
A young girl still dwells,
And now and again,
My battered heart swells.
I remember the joys,
I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living
Life over again.
I think of the y ears
All too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact
That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people,
Open and see,
Not a crabby old woman;
Look closer . . . see ME!!
So you
want a day off. Let's take a look at what you are asking for.
There are 365 days per year available for work.
There are 52 weeks per year in which you already have 2 days off per week,
leaving 261 days available for work.
Since you spend 16 hours each day away from work, you have used up 170
days, leaving only 91 days available.
You spend 30 minutes each day on coffee break which counts for 23 days
each year, leaving only 68 days available.
With a 1 hour lunch each day, you used up another 46 days, leaving only 22
days available for work.
You normally spend 2 days per year on sick leave.
This leaves you only 20 days per year available for work.
We are off 5 holidays per year, so your available working time is down to
15 days.
We generously give 14 days vacation per year which leaves only 1 day
available for work and I'll be darned if you are going to take that day
off!
Glenacres Superspar newsletter
recipe
STICKY BARBEQUED
RIBS
1.25kg pork ribs
5 Tbsp tomato sauce
3 Tbsp soft light brown sugar
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
450ml chicken stock
1. Rinse the ribs in cold water and arrange in a roasting pan
2. Mix the tomato sauce, sugar, oil, Worcestershire sauce and mustard
together
3. Brush the mixture over the ribs with a pastry brush
4. Pour the stock into the base of the pan
5. Roast in the centre of the oven at 200°C for 1 ¼ hours, brushing once
or twice with pan juices and turning the ribs occasionally
6. Separate the ribs and serve
Glenacres
Superspar sends out a really nice newsletter full of super recipes. To
subscribe,
click here and send the blank email.
Wacky Sarmie of the Month!
Go take a look at
my
Wacky Sarmies page, there are some great sarmie ideas!
From Michealsean: Syrup and marmite
on white bread,
Ham, Simba chips (chilli), mango pickles, mayonnaise, sliced tomato and
tomato sauce
Interested
in Traditional South African Home Remedies? (Boererate).
My Afrikaans eBook,
Boererate has now been completed,
click here for more info.
We are currently
working on an English version.
AND
My CD,
containing both Boererate (sorry, in Afrikaans only at this stage) and
Boeremusiek (traditional South African folk music) is now available.
Click here for details and to order.
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Bush Buzz
Nature is wonderful. I envy the jobs of the game rangers and their
wealth of bush knowledge. I have often wondered where one can read up
on all the interesting facts. I would like to make this a regular feature of
this newsletter, if you are able to contribute or would like to
comment on the contribution below, please
email me. |
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Some aardvark facts -
I have never been fortunate enough to see an aardvark,
but who knows, perhaps someday (or night!) I will get lucky!
The name
aardvark comes from a word meaning "earth pig." Although the aardvark,
endemic to Africa, shares some similarities with the South American
anteater, the two are not related.
The aardvark has a short neck connected to a massive, dull brownish-gray,
almost hairless body that has a strongly arched back. The legs are
short, the hind legs longer than the front ones. The head is elongated
and ends in a long, narrow snout, with nostrils that can be closed.
The long, tubular ears are normally held upright but can be folded and
closed. The short but muscular tail is cone-shaped and tapers to a
point. The thick claws on the forefeet are used as digging tools.
Aardvarks are found in all regions, from dry savanna to rain forest,
where there are sufficient termites for food, access to water and
sandy or clay soil. If the soil is too hard, aardvarks, despite being
speedy, powerful diggers, will move to areas where the digging is
easier.
Aardvarks are nocturnal, usually waiting until dark before they emerge
from their burrows, although after a cold night, they may occasionally
sun themselves. They leave a distinctive track from dragging their
tails during which their travels average one to three miles but can
range up to 18 miles a night. Aardvarks are seldom seen, but their
presence in an area serves many other animals. Bats, ground squirrels,
hares, cats, civets, hyenas, jackals, porcupines, warthogs, monitor
lizards, owls and other birds use abandoned aardvark holes as shelter.
The burrows vary from simple chambers with one entrance, to a
complicated maze of galleries with 20 or more entrances. Aardvarks
keep their burrows clean they deposit their dung in a hole away from
the entrance, carefully covering it with earth.
Aardvarks specialized in eating termites as long as 35 million years
ago. At night they go from one termite mound to another, dismantling
the hills with their powerful claws. Insects are trapped by the
aardvark's long protractile tongue, which is covered with a thick,
sticky saliva. Sometimes the aardvark will press its snout against an
opening in a mound and suck up the termites. Aardvarks, with their
keen sense of smell, also hunt for the long columns of termites that
move outside the mounds at night.
Aardvarks give birth to one offspring at a time. The pinkish, hairless
newborn stays inside the burrow for about 2 weeks and then begins to
follow its mother in her search for food. The young first eats solid
food at 3 months of age and is suckled until 4 months.
At about 6 months the young male becomes independent and goes off on
its own, while the young female stays with the mother until after the
next baby is born. The young female may then dig its own burrow a few
yards away from its mother but still joins her to forage for termites.
The aardvark has fewer teeth than most mammals. The teeth are columnar
in shape, have no roots and do not grow simultaneously.
Although not thought to be teritorial, females seem to become attached
to a particular place. The males wander more. Adult aardvarks are
usually solitary, coming together only for mating.
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The Herb
Section - ROSE |
The rose is strictly speaking not a herb, but it deserves a place
amongst our herbs as it is so beautiful and has the uses of a
herb.
A perennial shrub, roses like average soil and a sunny situation.
Roses need a good watering program and regular checking for
insects. Catnip, winter savory, rosemary or pennyroyal grown under
roses help to keep the bugs away.
Domestic uses:
A beautiful and popular cut flower for the vase
The petals are an essential in pot-pourri
Cosmetic uses:
Rosewater (made by boiling 2 cups of petals in 2 cups of water for
15 minutes) has an antiseptic and soothing quality, and can be
used on all skin types, even very sensitive or inflamed skin
Cooled rosewater may be strained and kept in the fridge for
further use
Medicinal uses:
Rose petal tea (made by infusing a cup of boiling water with a
quarter cup of rose petals, stood for 5 minutes, then strained)
has a calming effect. Serve it with a little honey
Rose oil, used as a massage oil, is said to aid circulation and
tone the blood capillaries
Rosewater splashed on the outside of the eyes helps with
conjunctivitis
Rosehip contains several vitamins, especially vitamin C and may be
taken in the form of a tea or syrup
Culinary uses:
The petals may be used to flavour ice cream, remembering to remove
the bitter white heel of the petal
The petals may be used to make rose petal conserve, also removing
the heel
More links
to herbs on my
Herb Page
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Thanks to everyone who has mailed us fridge magnets depicting your
State, City or Country. If you collect fridge magnets, I will gladly
swop with you!
Please
email me
and we can make arrangements. Thanx a lot! |
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My website highlights:
Internet and Home Business info on CD
The Ultimate
Recipe book on CD!
Visit my
Afrikaans pages
South African food and products overseas?
Click here!
Read the Zimbabwe Letters
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